Sphere VFX

NukeX Intermediate Course for Skillset

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:10:05 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have run a Nuke Intermediate course for Skillset Academy Plus.
The course covered a whole array of topics including: Multi-pass CGI Compositing, Colour Management, Keying using Primatte and Keylight, Stabilization and Corner Pinning, CGI Utility Channels. We also covered an introduction to Nuke’s 3D Environment looking at Camera Tracking, 3D Projection,Cleanup and Rig Removal Techniques, 3D Roto and custom Displacement Mapping.
An advances courses to follow soon. See the Skillset Academy Plus website for more details.

NukeX Training in Ireland

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:09:31 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have trained Flame, After Effects and 3D artists from Screen Scene, one of Dublin's premiere post production companies.
The week course covers many advanced aspects of Nuke including Keying, Tracking, Camera Matchmoving, Projection, Coverage Maps, Cleanup, 3D Roto, SynthEyes, Boujou and 3DS Max Integration and much more...

Conference on Visual Media and Production

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:08:48 +0100

This year’s This year’s Conference on Visual Media and Production is taking place in London on November 17th and 18th. The event provides an outlet for production and post personnel to discuss the latest technology and research impacting the field. This year’s confirmed speakers include:
Dan Piponi of ILM’s R&D group
Mike Romney,ZOIC studios in Los Angeles
James G.H. Knight, motion capture project manager on Avatar
Wolfgang Lempp, a founder and director of FilmLight Ltd
Marcus Gross, Director of Disney Research
Zurich David Spilsbury, Head of Commercials Technology at MPC
Bruno Nicoletti, CTO at The Foundry
John Fletcher of the BBC

Digital Domain is standardizing on RV

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:08:04 +0100

Tweak Software, developer of RV, the professional image and sequence viewer for VFX and animation artists, announced today that Digital Domain (DD) is standardizing on RV across its Venice and Vancouver facilities. RV’s professional, high-performance toolset is built on an open, extensible architecture allowing users to adapt the software to their own pipelines and styles of working.
RV is a lot more open for our own customization, is easier to integrate, has a lot more features, and is faster than other alternatives we evaluated,” commented Ryan Mayeda, Technology Project Manager, Digital Domain.
Our artists are really excited about RV because it does everything they need all in one single tool.
Digital Domain has already integrated RV with DMX, their proprietary in-house browser for dailies, and with The Foundry’s Nuke, allowing artists to quickly render composites and review them by launching RV from the Nuke Interface. Plans are underway to make RV the single unified viewer for additional in-house and commercial applications such as Autodesk’s Maya.

V-Ray RT for Maya

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:07:29 +0100

V-Ray RT for Maya is an interactive rendering engine that allows immediate communication between the user and the virtual environment. V-Ray RT applies the changes on the scene automatically and progressively, generating a photorealistic preview of the scene. It is designed to improve and fasten the artist’s work and significantly shorten the lighting and shading set up of a project.
Some of the key features of the V-Ray RT for Maya: flexible architecture, distributed rendering, complete integration with Autodesk Maya, progressive path tracing and many others.

Double Negative buys Nuke

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:06:17 +0100

The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects software, is delighted to announce that Double Negative has purchased a site licence of its compositor, Nuke.
Since opening its doors in 1998 with 30 staff, Double Negative has grown to 800 staff, making it Europe's largest provider of visual effects for Film.
Double Negative is held in high regard globally for its commitment to creative excellence and for its work on projects including Inception, Iron Man II, Quantum of Solace and Prince of Persia. They have also received two VES Awards for their work on The Dark Knight and Sherlock Holmes. Current projects include, John Carter of Mars, Paul, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Windmill Lane Trains NukeX

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:41:08 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have trained artist from Windmill Lane Pictures, Irelands largest and longest established integrated film and television post production company.
The course covered all aspects of NukeX including its unique multi layer/channel workflow, keying, masks, tracking, colour correction, 3D, camera matchmoving, lens distortion, gizmo creation and much more.

Mari training coming soon!

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:41:38 +0100

More details to come shortly...

Website update!

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:42:05 +0100

RenderMan for Maya 4.0

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:40:01 +0100

Pixar Animation Studios today disclosed full details of the upcoming versions of its RenderMan Studio and RenderMan for Maya products at SIGGRAPH 2010.
Targeted for release in the fall of 2010, RenderMan for Maya 4.0 is Pixar’s RenderMan plug-in for Autodesk’s Maya, optimized to provide fast and easy access to the photorealistic rendering technology used to create the stunning visual effects in the majority of today’s feature films. This latest version provides accelerated performance via the addition of unlimited threading and significant acceleration and memory efficiencies from core optimizations to the internal renderer. Additionally RenderMan for Maya 4.0 brings support for Maya Fluids, Maya 2011 compatibility, and the addition of a new unified interface for RenderMan Controls.

Nukepedia launched!

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:39:32 +0100

Brainchild of, and helmed by, the ever resourceful Mr Frank Rueter, Nukepedia brings together the Nuke community, providing gizmo, plug-in and python downloads, tutorials, articles, interviews and all things Nuke.

The Foundry Release MARI 1.0

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:38:44 +0100

The Foundry Release MARI 1.0 - the first iteration of their new 3D Texture Painting Application.
MARI is a brand new creative 3D texture painting product, originally developed at Weta Digital to handle the exceedingly detailed look development and texture work demanded by Avatar. MARI copes easily with an obsessive level of detail - literally tens of thousands of textures - quickly and elegantly. MARI has already been enthusiastically received across a variety of texture painting communities with pre-release adoption from studios including Double Negative and Framestore.
MARI is currently available on Linux. The team are working hard on a windows build which will be released later this year.

The Pixel Farm announces PFMatchit

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:37:37 +0100

The Pixel Farm announces PFMatchit, the new and groundbreaking 2D/3D camera-tracking/matchmoving product, attractively priced for every desktop. The first product to harness the power of The Pixel Farm's innovative node-based flowgraph architecture, and is the beginning of a wider realignment of the company's core VFX product range. Chief features of PFMatchit include:
Node-based flowgraph architecture
Python scripting and workflow customisation
Metadata management core
Unlimited camera and object motion tracks
Inbuilt rolling shutter and image-distortion tools
Native RED RAW handling, and 3D stereo review tools

NukeX 6.1 Released

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:36:56 +0100

The Foundry’s NUKE team has been analysing artist feedback and production problems, refining NUKE to meet the latest creative and workflow needs. NUKE 6.1 has many great new features and enhancements including:
Ultimatte Keyer now included
3D snapping & selection, all user extendable with Python
FBX export
Interactive viewing through cameras
Get/set local and world transform 4x4 Matrix on 3D operators
Red 3.1 upgrade with RED Rocket support
Framecycler Pro upgrade to 2009 with 64 bit support
Rotopaint UI and performance improvements
Render tree generation overhaul
OFX 1.2 support
New camera tracker features

NewTek LightWave 10

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:36:16 +0100

NewTek, worldwide leader of 3D animation and video products, today announced NewTek LightWave 10, the next generation of its Emmy® award-winning professional 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. LightWave 10 will combine ground-breaking CORE Technology with enhanced Modeler and Layout to deliver the most extensive upgrade in years to LightWave’s production-proven workflow. New features include:
Interactive Display and Rendering Tools
Flexible Data Interchange Enhancements
New Immersive, Real-Time and Game Tools
Bullet Rigid Body Dynamics
Advanced UV Mapping Tools

The Foundry announces partnership with Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:35:07 +0100

In addition to incorporating elements of Disney’s internally developed Paint 3D technology into Mari, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ technology group will participate in a Mari steering committee, contributing to the future direction of the software.
Paint 3D offers some of the industry’s most advanced aspects of paint and texture creation technology. Paint 3D is also the original development ground and authoring tool for Ptex, Disney’s open source texture mapping system that eliminates the need for UV mapping and efficiently stores hundreds of thousands of images in a single file. This represents the first time Walt Disney Animation Studios has commercially licensed its proprietary animation software to an outside company.

Video Interview with Bob Whitehill Stereoscopic Supervisor on Toy Story 3

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:34:34 +0100

Video Interview with Bob Whitehill Stereoscopic Supervisor on Toy Story 3

Double Negative and Framestore make significant in MARI.

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 11:33:50 +0100

The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects software is delighted to announce that Double Negative and Framestore have made a significant investment in it’s newest product MARI.
MARI is a brand new creative 3D texture painting product originally developed at Weta Digital to handle the exceedingly detailed look development and texture work demanded by Avatar, MARI copes easily with an obsessive level of detail - literally tens of thousands of textures - quickly and elegantly.
MARI has been enthusiastically received across a variety of texture painting communities. This decision by Double Negative and Framestore to invest while the product is still in beta and set MARI to work on live projects is testament to quality of the product and hunger for development in this area of work.

Walt Disney moves to Nuke

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 17:44:25 +0100

Walt Disney Animation Studios has licensed Nuke, the Sci-Tech Award®-winning compositing technology from leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry, and will utilize it in the production of its feature projects, it was announced today by Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry. Disney will use The Foundry’s tools to help re-envision the way departments and workflow come together in creating animated films.

fxphd have released details on the new July 2010 term

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 00:54:23 +0100

30 courses are being repeated, 20 are in "The Vault", and 13 courses are new. These include:
AFX212 After Effects Project - The Open, Part 2
BKD217 Background Fundamentals July10
NUK303 Nuke Stereoscopic Master Class
C4D205 Cinema 4D and Design III
PRM201 Intermediate Premiere Pro CS5
RFL202 Real Flow 5 Project Workshop
DOP203 Tools of the DOP
RGT201 Red Giant for FCP
DOP211 DSLR Cinematography: Nature
LST201 Intermediate Lustre
SMK204 Intermediate Smoke/Flame III
VUE201 A Comprehensive Guide to Vue

The Foundry have released Nuke 6.0v7.

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 00:53:50 +0100

This is a maintenance release only.

New Website for The Foundry

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 00:53:09 +0100

The Foundry has a new web site. It was launched today as a public beta. You can visit it at beta.thefoundry.co.uk.
There are lots of changes both in how it looks and how it works. The Foundry hope you like it. If you spot any missing links or have any comments, please email Andy Ballingall.
Development will continue over the next few weeks and months.

Prime Focus Switch Pipeline to Nuke With Global Site License Purchase

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 00:52:00 +0100

London, June 23rd, 2010 – Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry, today announced that Global Visual Entertainment Services group, Prime Focus, has purchased a site license of Nuke to revamp their in-house pipeline.
Anshul Doshi, Global COO at Prime Focus, comments: "Nuke’s open infrastructure, forward thinking roadmap, support and proactive engineering team will enable true integration of the software into our ‘Global Digital Pipeline’. The inherent stereoscopic workflow and proven track record of use on Avatar increased Nuke’s attractiveness given our upcoming project slate. The Foundry push boundaries, listen to customers and invest in research making them a perfect partner for Prime Focus as we move forward tackling increasingly ambitious projects.”

NukeX Introduction Course for Skillset

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:03:33 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have run a Nuke Introduction course for Skillset Academy Plus. The course was is designed for those artist would had no previous Nuke experience. Areas of Nuke covered on the course included:
Introduction to Nuke’s User Interface
Understanding Layers and Channels
Basic Compositing
The Bounding Box
Transformations and Animation
Roto and Paint
Colour Correction
Keying and Colour Suppression Techniques
Tracking
The Curve Editor and Time Operations

eyeon Software announces Fusion 6.1

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:03:09 +0100

eyeon Software announced today the release of their latest version of Fusion’s new Supercomputing compositing software for Linux and Windows. Some of the new features include: • OpenCL GPU Supercomputing • RenderMan® support • Python scripting • RED® camera MYSTERIUM X™ support • Particle system and geometry enhancements • Particle caching • Relighting enhancements • Full importing of scenes with matched animation curves • Importing of stereo cameras • FBX multi level materials support from all major 3D applications • Film Grain tool • Hue Curves and colour suppression tool • Local file caching options • Increased metadata support • Coordinate transfer modifier enhancements

Flame to NukeX Course

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:48:54 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have trained a senior Autodesk Flame artist in NukeX.

Eduardo Alvin Cruz has worked at some of the top digital production studio in the UK, USA and Spain including: Golden Square (Soho), Pure (New York), MacGuff (Los Angeles) and Serena Digital (Madrid).

The week long covered many aspects of NukeX and focused on the different tools and techniques found between Flame and Nuke.

Industrial Light and Magic new Website

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:47:06 +0100

The Man Behind Pixar's 3D Films

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:46:41 +0100

C-Net has a great article on Toy Story 3D

New Stereoscopic Course

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 19:01:05 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to announce our new 'Introduction to Stereoscopic Post Production' course.

The course looks to introduce existing artists working in 3D and Compositing into the world of stereo and covers everything from concepts & theory to hands-on exercises.

The 3D software being taught is Autodesk's Maya but with the Compositing side of the course you can choose either The Foundry's Nuke or eyeon's Fusion. A fourth section covers the use of The Foundry's Ocula.

Summer 2010 Wall Paper Released

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 19:00:04 +0100

New spherevfx wall paper has been released with images from Toy Story 3, Predators, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Inception, Piranha 3D, The Last Airbender, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Knight and Day, Shrek 4: Forever After, Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore, The A-Team, and Sea Rex 3D.

A Month of Maya and Nuke Training

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:58:07 +0100

Artists from Lumiere Services (Cyprus) have attended a months training at spherevfx covering both Maya 2011 and NukeX 6.0. The specialist course cover many aspects of both programs including:

Maya - Modeling, Animation, Rigging, Dynamics, nParticles, nCloth, Shaders, Lights, Cameras, Render Passes, and mental ray.

Nuke - Multipass compositing, Layers and Channels, Colour Correction, Roto and Paint, Tracking, Keying, Time Manipulation, Matchmoving and 3D.

Along with software skills we also covered:
Visual Effects Workflows
The State of the Industry
File Formats & Colour Depth
and best Industry Practices

Houdini 11

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:57:21 +0100

Side Effects Software gives a sneak peek of Houdini 11 at Los Angeles live forum.
Coming new features include: the new Voronoi-based fracturing tools will make it easier to break up objects either before a simulation or automatically during a simulation.
Particle Fluids are up to 70 times faster with the new FLIP (Fluid Implicit Particle) solver. New buoyancy controls make it easier to float rigid objects and you can even smash up an object by combining these fluid tools with the new fracturing tools. Hardware Rendering has also been enhanced with high quality OpenGL shading of lights and shadows as well as GPU-assisted volumes, unlimited lights and support for diffuse, specular, opacity, environment, bump and normal maps. Houdini’s Flipbook tools now support all these FX and can capture high dynamic range beauty passes.
In addition, Side Effects have improved the lighting interface for Houdini 11. New light types are available such as Global Illumination, Portal, Sky, Indirect and Geometry. The Geometry Lights make it possible to turn any 3D object into a light emitting surface then use a surface shader to control the light emission. The geometry can also be animating or deforming for even cooler results.
Finally there will be faster particle fluids, faster rendering and targeted optimizations such as extensive multi-threading for dynamics and algorithmic enhancements for Houdini in general.

Cinefex 122

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:55:21 +0100

The new issue of Cinefex (122) is out covering:
Iron Man 2
Alice in Wonderland
Clash of the Titans
Splice

The next issue will cover: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Inception, The Last Airbender and The A-Team.

Maxwell Render for Nuke

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:54:22 +0100

Maxwell Render from Next Limit, makers of Real Flow, have released a new Nuke 6 Plugin. The first third-party rendering plug-in for The Foundry’s Nuke and brings two components: the MXI Reader and the MXI Multilight Mixer. The MXI Reader allows users to load Maxwell image files or sequences into a Nuke node with full 32 bits color information. The MXI Multilight Mixer brings Maxwell Render’s famous Multilight feature to Nuke, allowing users to mix lights and adjust the intensity of emitters interactively. The plug-in is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

CGW Magazine article on 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'.

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:52:55 +0100

In the June 2010 issue of CGW, we go behind the scenes to provide an in-depth look at how VFX studios created the amazing visual effects in the film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In an unusual twist, here we are offering a glimpse at the making of the film from the live photography standpoint, with the hopes that it will make our readers appreciate the CG work even more.
Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films recently released "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince named Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), and together they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger...

Pulldownit!

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:51:48 +0100

Pulldownit! is a brand new dynamics solver which allows for the creation of fractures as well as massive rigid bodies simulations. By using its technology digital artists are able to simulate fast and easily scenes made of thousands of objects and collapse buildings, bridges or any kind of brittle material.
Pulldownit 1.5 has been released for Max and Maya

New Vue xStream Course

Sun, 9 May 2010 15:26:08 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to announce our new Vue 8.5 xStream course.
Vue 8 is the most efficient and advanced solution for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It offers a high-end 3D scenery solution for SFX studios, animators, illustrators, architects, matte painters and CG professionals. It is strongly focused on power, productivity and inter-operability with existing toolkits. Vue 8 naturally integrates and extends all major 3D applications to provide a complete, professional natural 3D studio.
Specifically designed for professionals, it combines a multitude of cutting-edge features that easily integrate with your workflow.
With its intuitive, production-oriented layout, you will quickly enhance your production with rich EcoSystem of wind-swept trees and plants, Spectral atmospheres and detailed terrains in fully animated scenes.
Vue has been used on many feature films including: Prince of Persia, G.I. Joe, The Wolfman, 2012, Pirate of the Caribbean, Terminator Salvation, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

New American Cinematography Magazine

Sun, 9 May 2010 15:25:30 +0100

The May American Cinematography Magazine is out,
This month it covers:
Iron Man 2 - Matthew Libatique, ASC
Oceans
Mother and Child - Xavier Perez Grobet, ASC, AMC
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Eric Kress, DFF
ASC Awards Weekend

Cinesite buys site license of Nuke.

Sun, 9 May 2010 15:24:53 +0100

Cinesite has heavily expanded its compositing department by investing in a site license of Nuke. Cinesite recently used Nuke as its main compositing tool on the Warners Bros hit, Clash of the Titans. The investment is part of an overall strategy by the company to double in size over the next 18 months following the commission of many projects - including Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1, Disney/Pixar’s John Carter of Mars, Fox/Walden’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Sony/Columbia picture Battle: Los Angeles.

Vue 8.5 xStream

Sun, 9 May 2010 15:24:02 +0100

e-on software has announced the immediate availability of Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments. Release 8.5 of Vue adds a number of new features:
Global Gamma Control
Interactive Cloud Control
Animated Planetary Cloud Density Maps
Diagnosis Render Passes
Unlimited Material Painting
Zone Extraction
New Terrain Sculpting Tools
Advanced EcoSystem Control
Improved OpenGL Engine and Viewport Display

NukeX and Maya 2011 at the Film School

Sat, 1 May 2010 14:51:07 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to have taught students both The Foundry's NukeX and Autodesk's Maya 2011 at the International FIlm School Wales.
The three course covered Lighting, Rendering and Animating Techniques in Maya. Basic Nuke compositing tricks where also taught including Layers and Channels, Colour Correction, Keying, Tracking and basic 3D.

Matt Leonard Teaches Nuke in Norway

Sat, 1 May 2010 14:50:41 +0100

Matt Leonard (Head of Training for spherevfx) is delighted to have attended this years Digital Storytelling conference in Oslo, Norway. Following the conference Leonard had the pleasure of teaching NukeX to artist from across Scandinavia during two days of workshops.
One unexpected privilege was Matt's opportunity to spend time with Robert Stromberg who has just won the Academy Award for Art Direction for Avatar. He also had the opportunity to meet up with Ben and Vikki from The Foundry, Theo Groeneboom (Lead Compositor on Avatar for Framestore) and Colin Doncaster (Weta Digital, Avatar / The Lovely Bones).

Pixar: Tractor 1.0

Sat, 1 May 2010 14:50:12 +0100

Tractor 1.0 is Pixar's totally new, next generation, distributed processing solution for rendering and other network intensive applications. Derived from years of experience in managing the computational demands of the worlds largest render farms, Tractor is specifically engineered to address the extreme scalability and performance requirements of multi-core networks of tens of thousands of processors and more.

Ocula 2.0v2

Sat, 1 May 2010 14:49:58 +0100

The Foundry is pleased to announce that Ocula 2.0v2 has been released adding Nuke 6.0 support.

Maya Course Updated for 2011 Release

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:08:00 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to announce we're updated out Maya course to cover the updates found in the newly released 2011 version.

fxphd and 'MYA 102: Introduction to Maya 2011'

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:05:41 +0100

Matt Leonard (Head of Training) is extremely pleased to be working again with Mike, John and all the team at fxphd. This term Matt is running a brand new Maya Introduction course and is aimed at those who have little or no experience in 3D, or post-grads who know another system, such 3DS Max or Softimage but want to expand their software skills. The course is designed to cover all the main areas of Maya's vast toolset including Modeling, Animation, Rigging, Muscles, nParticles, Dynamics, nCloth, Hair, Fur, Fluids, Shaders, UV’s, Lighting, Cameras and Rendering.
This course is entirely project focused and throughout the term we’ll be working on a single project. The shot will be created with a final Stereoscopic output in mind and will utilize all areas of Maya mentioned above. An extra bonus class has also been added on to complete the project in Nuke.

The Foundry's Storm

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:05:22 +0100

fxguide have an excusive on The Foundry's new product STORM.

Fusion 6.1

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:03:20 +0100

eyeon Software have unveiled Fusion 6.1, updates include:
OpenCL GPU Supercomputing
RenderMan® Support
Python Scripting
RED Camera Mysterium X Support
Particles as Geometry Regions
Particle Caching
Film Grain Tool
Hue Curves Tool
Local File Caching
Metadata Tools

Nuke 6.0v4

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:02:36 +0100

The Foundry have released Nuke 6.0v4, updates include:
Nuke Plug-in Installer
Update to DepthGenerator
Update to RotoPaint

eyeon and Uncharted Territory Partner

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:01:15 +0100

Following the tremendous success of 2012 and Uncharted Territory’s unprecedented use of eyeon Software’s Fusion and Generation VFX workflow software, Uncharted Territory has chosen to partner with eyeon on new projects going forward, including Roland Emmerich’s upcoming film project, Anonymous.

fxphd has announced their new term - April 2010

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:00:14 +0100

Among the 37 courses are 12 new ones:
AFX211: After Effects Project - The Open
BKD216: Background Fundamentals
EDT202: Crafting the Scene
MKY201: Intermediate MoKey
MTH101: Mathematics for Visual Effects and Design
MYA102: An Introduction to Maya 2011
NUK212: Nuke 2D to 3D Stereo Conversion
PNT204: Matte Painting and Digital Environments
RED210: Red 210
RND201: Intermediate RenderMan
SMK203: Intermediate Smoke/Flint II
VRY101: Introduction to V-Ray

The Foundry - MARI

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:50:45 +0100

The Foundry are collaborating with Weta Digital to bring to market their internally developed and highly regarded 3D texture painting technology MARI.
We are thrilled to add Mari to our product line. The Foundry has worked hard to transform Nuke from an in-house application into the compositor of choice and will dedicate the same amount of energy and effort into ensuring that Mari becomes the ‘must have’ paint tool for artists. Mari is a great application that we will, with input from the community, make even better and more accessible to artists all over the world working in a variety of industries. commented Dr Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry.

The Making of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:50:15 +0100

CGChannel are showcasing the making of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The talk is from Gnomon School of Visual Effects. Featuring presentations from Digital Domain’s Hagzhi Tang (CG Lighting Supervisor), Jimmy Gordon (Technical Animation Supervisor), Lucio Flores (Senior FX Animator).

Website Update

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:09:44 +0100

Future VFX Movies and Web Links updated.

Mike Seymour (fxguide) has a great article on 'Mari', Weta Digital's in-house paint tool, soon to be released by The Foundry.

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:09:11 +0100

"Mari is a new product for the Foundry, developed by their R&D department and the texture department at Weta Digital. Mari has been forged by Weta in the heat of the production of films such as Lord of The Rings, King Kong and Avatar. Mari is a full 3D paint/texture tool able to handle up to 30K textures and produce production ready assets while remaining responsive and interactive..."

MPC buys Nuke site license.

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:08:31 +0100

The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects software whose products have been used to make movies including Avatar, Alice in Wonderland District 9 and The Road is pleased to announce that MPC, one of the world’s largest visual effects and computer animation studios has invested in a Nuke site license. MPC’s credits include the Harry Potter franchise, The Wolfman, Watchmen, and the last and forthcoming‘Chronicles of Narnia’ projects.

VFXShow - Alice in Wonderland

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:43:24 +0000

Mike Seymour, John Flowers and Ian Failes discuss the visual effects of the 2010 feature film Alice in Wonderland and 3D extraction from 2D film.

GDC - Maya 2011 Demo

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:42:53 +0000

Day 2 of the Games Developers Conference showed a presentation on Maya 2011. Get a first look at some of the new features of Maya 2011 including the New UI, Viewport renderer and rigging/skinning workflows.

Nuke for VFX Supervisor/Senior Flame Artist

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:09:26 +0000

spherevfx is delighted to have trained VFX Supervisor and Senior Flame Artist Toby Brockhurst. The custom course covered many aspects of Nuke including 3D, Stereoscopic compositing, Keying, Tracking, Matchmoving and Nukes unique Layers/Channels system.
Brockhurst has worked at some of the top VFX companies around the world including Framestore, Glassworks, R!ot, The Mill and MPC. Along with countless Commercials Brockhurst has worked on feature films such as Pearl Harbor, The Devils Advocate, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Moulin Rouge!

Nuke at Swansea Metropolitan University

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:09:09 +0000

Over a week of teaching, Matt Leonard (Head of Training at spherevfx) taught Nuke to students and staff at Swansea Metropolitan University. Working with students taking both Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degree courses, Matt covered a host of techniques including Multipass 3D Compositing, Keying, Tracking, 3D and more.

Maya/Nuke Course for Spanish VFX Artist

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:08:51 +0000

spherevfx is delighted to have taught at Spanish visual effects artist Nuke and also covered some tips in Maya relating into compositing and lighting.
The four day course focused on Stereoscopic compositing and 3D including cleanup, pan and tile, 3D roto, projection and more. We also covered keying, colour correction, tracking, matchmoving, lens distortion, etc.

Nuke Course for the French and English

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:08:32 +0000

spherevfx is extremely pleased to have taught Nuke to artists from both France and England.
The three day course covered many aspects of Nuke including it's Multipass Workflow, Stereoscopic Compositing, 3D, Keying, Tracking, Roto and Paint, Camera Tracking, Lens Distortion and more. We also briefly looked a custom shader creation in Maya.

Custom Nuke London Course

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:08:07 +0000

spherevfx is delighted to a have run a custom Nuke 6.0 course of a visual effects artist based in London.
The coursed covered Nuke's Multipass Workflow, 3D, Stereoscopic, Keying, Tracking, Roto and Paint, Camera Tracking and more.

Updated Nuke Course

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:07:44 +0000

spherevfx is pleased to announce the update of our Nuke courses to cover the new features found in version 6.0 of both Nuke and NukeX.
Some of the new features include: * RotoPaint * Keylight * LensDistortion o Image Analysis o Grid Analysis o Line Analysis * CameraTracker * FurnanceCore

fxphd Courses in Maya and Fusion

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:07:18 +0000

Matt Leonard (Head of Training) is delighted that fxphd is re-running a number of his classes including: * FUS202 - Intermediate Fusion 6 * MYA101 - Introduction to Maya * MYA211 - Maya Rendering and Lighting Matt has been working with fxphd for nearly 3 years and we can't recommend their excellent online training enough.

Updated Generation Course

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:07:01 +0000

spherevfx is pleased to announce the update of our eyeon Generation course to cover the new features found in version 2, including: * Red and EXR support * Stereo playback * Dissolves and improved editing controls * 3D LUT * Display Color Controls * Python scripting support * XML conversion of scratch style projects * New interface features and refinements * Multi playback layout

Bespoke Nuke Training

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:06:47 +0000

Matt Leonard (Head of Training) is pleased to have taught Nuke again at 01zero-one for a bespoke London company. The course, joint taught with Ian Murphy, was designed for artist coming from other compositing packages and covers all aspects of Nuke. including colour correction, tracking, 3D, channels, keying and more.

Update to 'Future VFX Movies'

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:51:45 +0000

Horrorween* - Unknown
Ghost Rider 2 - Unknown
Mission: Impossible IV - Unknown
The Invisible Women - Unknown
2012: The War of Souls - Unknown
Transformers 3 - Unknown
The Birds - Unknown
Indiana Jones 5 - Unknown
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Unknown
Sin City 2 - Unknown
Warcraft - Unknown
The Evil Dead - Unknown
Dibbuk Box - Unknown
Wanted 2 - Unknown

Free Tutorial on Nuke's Layer and Channel system

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:50:08 +0000

We are pleased to announce out new free Nuke tutorial covering Nuke's Unique Layer and Channel system. This in-depth tutorial also coves the Shuffle and ShuffleCopy nodes and the use of openEXR files.

Leonard Joins Screen Academy Wales

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:49:02 +0000

Matt Leonard (Head of Training) is delighted to have been asked onto the membership of the Industry Panel of Animation for Skillset Screen Academy Wales.
The Skillset Screen Academy Wales is one of the UK’s 7 recognised centres of high level film, animation and screen acting industry-focused training and education, providing masters level and undergraduate programme in eight core areas.
The (SSAW) partnership is between University of Wales Newport (International Film School of Wales, The University of Glamorgan (Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries) and associate partners Swansea Metropolitan University, The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Cyfle, as an industry training partner.
They provide masterclasses, mentoring opportunities, intensive residencies and film labs, curriculum development, short courses and direct contact with the industry in Wales and across the UK for our students and graduates, as well as offering bursaries for students to attend our courses.

eyeon Interview on 2012

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:48:39 +0000

Steve Roberts (eyeon Software CEO) interviews Uncharted Territory's Rebel Unit. who employed Fusion and Generation on groundbreaking visual effects work for Roland Emmerich's 2012.

Digital Domain and 2012

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:48:14 +0000

Interesting article on CG Channel.com talking about the work Digital Domain did on Roland Emmerich's 2012.

ILM Breakdowns

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:47:53 +0000

Interesting video showing some visual effects breakdowns from Industrial Light and Magic's work on 'Iron Man', 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'.

Popular Mechanics covers 2012

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:47:28 +0000

Interesting article in Popular Mechanics magazine called "The Anatomy of a Disaster Scene" covering a breakdown of one of the most spectacular visual effects shots from Roland Emmerich's 2012.

Wired and Avatar

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:46:59 +0000

This months Wired magazine has a interesting article on James Cameron's epic Avatar.

Maya and Nuke Consultancy at Munky

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:21:55 +0000

spherevfx was delighted to have provided consultancy work for 'Munky' on their new HD project. The consultancy was mainly focused on their Maya and Nuke pipeline and requirement.
Munky is a VFX boutique based in London, their work includes Commercials, Feature Film, and TV. They have a core team of artist with a fantastic reputation for getting productions and people out of jail, and fast.

The Foundry buys Sony Pictures Imagework's 'Katana'.

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:20:43 +0000

The Foundry has formed a unique collaboration with industry leading visual effects and animation studio, Sony Pictures Imageworks. The two companies are embarking on a technology sharing relationship to advance visual effects and digital production techniques across the industry. Sony Pictures Imageworks now add The Foundry’s industry renowned compositing software, Nuke, to their existing stable of the company’s plug-ins, and The Foundry gain access to a range of Imageworks’ innovative in-house technology including the highly regarded lighting tool, Katana. The agreement also involves close cooperation going forward. The two companies will work together to ensure the successful use and integration of each other’s technology, and exchange updates and new discoveries.

e-on software ships Vue 8

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:19:46 +0000

New features include 3D terrain sculpting, a new directional displacement engine and the 3rd generation of e-on’s cutting-edge atmospheric technology.
Companies using Vue xStream include: Industrial Light and Magic, Animal Logic, Whiskytree, to name a few and has been used of feature films such as Terminator Salvation, Australia, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Free Custom Render Pass Tutorials

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:56:17 +0100

We are pleased to announce threee new tutorials for Nuke and Maya.
Firstly a custom UV render pass setup for use with Nukes STMap node, secondly a custom Fresnel render pass used to realistically remove reflections based on light angles, and lastly a custom Point Pass which works in conjunction with a Normal pass for relighting.

Maya Training for The Foundry

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:54:35 +0100

Having a long standing relationship with The Foundry spherevfx was delighted to be able to provide two days of Maya training to a number of key staff. The training covered the UI, modelling, animation, shader building, rendering along with other areas along the way.

Paul Debevec on TED

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:53:24 +0100

At TEDxUSC, computer graphics trailblazer Paul Debevec explains the scene-stealing technology behind Digital Emily, a digitally constructed human face so realistic it stands up to multiple takes.

The Foundry have released Nuke 5.2v2

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:52:52 +0100

The Foundry have released Nuke 5.2v2. It includes updated red support (sdk v2) and a number of bug fixes. This is a maintenance release free to customers on valid maintenance contracts.

e-on software announces Vue 8

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:51:42 +0100

e-on software announces Vue 8 scheduled for release the first week of November, 2009. New features include 3D terrain sculpting, a new directional displacement engine and the 3rd generation of e-on’s cutting-edge atmospheric technology.
Companies using Vue xStream include: Industrial Light and Magic, Animal Logic, Whiskytree, to name a few and has been used of feature films such as Terminator Salvation, Australia, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The Foundry Ocula 2 Released

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:14:13 +0100

The Foundry have released Version 2 of their Nuke Stereoscopic plugin toolset Ocula. New pluding's have been added including:
O_Solver (determines the geometrical relationship between a stereo pair of views by detecting feature matches.)
O_DepthToDisparity (generate a disparity field from a stereo pair of depth maps plus a camera set-up)
O_DisparityToDepth (generate depth maps from a disparity field)
Other improvements have also been made to all the orginal tools aswell including: O_DisparityGenerator, O_InteraxialShifter, O_NewView, O_VerticalAligner, and O_ColourMatcher.

American Cinematograph Magazine covers Red Dwarf

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:13:47 +0100

The October edition of American Cinematograph Magazine is covering the word work carried out by fxphd and their Special Op's team (Including Matt Leonard (Head of Training).

eyeon Fusion 6.0 r492

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:13:08 +0100

eyeon Software release version 492 of the flagship compositing system Fusion 6.

Digital Domain to open office in Canada

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:12:36 +0100

Digital Domain, the visual effects company behind Academy Award-winning films Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, will open a 20,000-square-foot studio in Vancouver in early 2010. The company, based in Venice, California, will hire 50-60 digital artists, mostly Canadian, to get the operation running, with plans to staff the studio with 100 employees by the end of 2010. First project slated for work in Vancouver is the locally shot Tron: Legacy, a Disney production.The studio will come to Vancouver to take advantage of the British Columbia’s tax credits and to tap into the city’s world-renowned labour pool of digital artists.

Nuke 3D at 01zero-one

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:12:00 +0100

In the first of two evening at 01zero-one, Matt Leonard, head of training was please to have taught professional students The Foundry's Nuke.
The evening consisted of an introduction to Nuke's 3D system, Pan and Tile setup, lens correction and more.

fxphd and 'Maya in Production', plus Nuke, PFTrack and more...

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:12:53 +0100

Matt Leonard (Head of Training) is extremely pleased to be working again with Mike, John and all the team at fxphd. This term Matt is running a 300 level Maya/Nuke course which will cover some of the visual effects work on Jason Wingrove's new fill 'Moving Day'.

GI: Joe Rise of Cobra

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:12:22 +0100

Interesting interview with Brian Grill Visual Effects Supervisor for Digital Domain on GI Joe Rise of Cobra over at CG Channel.

New October 09 term at fxphd

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:11:25 +0100

fxphd announces it's new October 09 term showcasing 11 new classes along with 24 repeated courses from previous terms. New classes include:
Background Fundamentals
After Effects Projects
MoGraph and More
Directing
Houdini Production Techniques
Maya in Production: Moving Day
Building a Post Boutique: Hootenanny Case Study
RED Digital Cinematography
Grading with Scratch
Introduction to Stereoscopic Production and Post
Intermediate SynthEyes II

New spherevfx Wallpaper Available

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:11:09 +0100

Our new winter wallpaper is available to download featuring images from The Wolfman, Dorian Gray, Surrogates, Where the Wild Things Are, Shutter Island, District 9, Splice, Avatar, A Christmas Carol, 2012, The Box, The Lovely Bones, Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Sherlock Holmes, and Alice in Wonderland.

New vfxshow covering Brazil

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:10:14 +0100

Mike Seymour, Mark Christiansen and Kristin Martin discuss visual effects in Terry Gilliam’s classic feature film, Brazil (1985).

Pixologic have released Z Brush 3.5

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:20:48 +0100

Updates include: ZSpheres 2 and ZSketch, Surface noise, Brush noise, Improved LazyMouse with Backtrack and Snap to Track modes, New brushes such as Trim, Planar, Noise, Move, Spherical, Slide, Form, Flakes, Crumple and more, New Brush Depth Masking to give complete brush control on a surface, New MatCap materials for ZSpheres 2/ZSketch mode, Gradient PolyPaint and much more...

Cinefex issue 119 is out!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:20:26 +0100

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
District 9
G-Force

New Houdini Training Course

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:18:23 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to announce our new Houdini training course. The 10 day 'Fundamental' course covers all the key areas of this unique node-based 3D software.

spherevfx Soon To Teach Vue xStream

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:18:03 +0100

Vue 7.5 xStream offers professional CG artists a complete toolset for creating and rendering exceptionally rich and realistic natural environments. Access all the power of the world's leading 3D scenery program directly from within your favorite application. Create and edit beautifully detailed natural environments using your application's standard manipulators. Render everything together inside Maya, and other 3D applications, with full interaction between Vue and native elements, including 2-way mutual shadow casting, reflection, refraction and GI.
Companies using Vue xStream include: Industrial Light and Magic, Animal Logic, Whiskytree, to name a few and has been used of feature films such as Terminator Salvation, Australia, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Fusion Course Customer Testimony

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:52:28 +0100

Derk Ebeling took a Fusion course held by spherevfx in London. Here is his feedback about the course, the content, and how he benefited from the experience with authorized eyeon SWAT trainer, Matt Leonard.

Nuke 5.2 Course of The University of Greenwich

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:52:06 +0100

spherevfx is please to have provided a Nuke 5.2 course for staff at The University of Greenwich. The course covered all area's of The Foundry's newest version of this award winning compositing software including:
Multi-channel high dynamic range workflow Colour Correction Point and Normal Pass Relighting Keying and Matte Creation 3D (Pan & Tile, Cleanup, Projection, Roto) and much more...

Upgraded Nuke Training Courses to 5.2

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:51:49 +0100

spherevfx has upgraded its Nuke training courses to cover the new features found in the 5.2 releases. The courses now covers:

Metadata

Precomp Node

DiskCache Node

Tile Node

Monitor Output

Dockable Progress Panels

Input Processes and Viewer Processes

Panalog, RedLog, ViperLog, and REDSpace LUTs

Support for REDCODE (.r3d) Files

Python Panels and Callbacks

Stereo FrameCycler

New Maya Composite 2010 Training Course Coming Soon.

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:50:14 +0100

spherevfx will soon be releasing a Maya Composite 2010 course aimed at Maya artist. Maya Composite formally known as Toxik features:
Multilayer Compositing and

3D Effects

Pre-Compositing

Maya I/O

2D and 3D Compositing

Image Processing Tools

Pixel Expressions

Warping

Effects Tools

Customization Tools

Managing Film Grain
Keying

Masking

Raster Paint

Color Correction

Animation

Time Tools

Vectors

Expressions

Tracking and Stabilizing

Video Tools

Utilities

V-Ray for Maya

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:55:29 +0100

Chaos Group team is excited to announce the official release of V-Ray for Maya. The comprehensive set of features provided by V-Ray for Maya includes true 3D Motion Blur, Sun & Sky procedural lighting system, Physical camera for matching life footage, Environment Fog, a set of Sub-Surface Scattering shaders and many others. V-Ray for Maya is supported on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora operating systems in their 32-bit and 64-bit versions (other distributions also work). V-Ray runs with Autodesk Maya 2008, 2009 and 2010 versions. Aimed at improving quality and efficiency in the production processes of the VFX and Film industry, V-Ray for Maya now enables the rendering of larger scenes with greater complexity while at the same time artists can rely on a faster rendering stage without compromising on the quality side of their work.

boujou 5

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:54:14 +0100

Building on its industry leading automatic toolset boujou software, boujou 5 allows you to solve complex shots even faster and to step in and work directly with the data. boujou 5 has a unique way of solving which radically accelerates the way you work, you can now solve even more shots in less time. New features include:

New Automatic Sequential Solver

Fully Functional Graph Editor

Reference Frames

New Target Tracker

eyeon Generation 2 Released

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:53:06 +0100

Generation 2.0 is a major update to acclaimed Generation visual effects desktop, the must have workflow front-end for artists and studios. With tight deadlines, revision management, and team work, Generation excels at providing a flexible desktop for studios to manage many projects, shots, versions, and elements. Customizable, scriptable, and designed for teams, Generation makes it easy to integrate into existing studio workflows. New Features in Generation 2.0 include:

Red and EXR Support

Stereo Playback Support

Dissolves and Improved Editing Controls

LUTs Per Clip and Multiple View LUTs for Monitor Calibrations

Python Scripting Support

XML Conversion for Scratch-Style Projects

New Interface Features and Refinements

Multi-Playback Layout

Local and Network Proxies

New Tool Bar and Features

CINEMA 4D Release 11.5

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:53:42 +0100

MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D software, today announced the immediate availability of CINEMA 4D Release 11.5, a comprehensive upgrade to its highly-acclaimed 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering software. Loaded with new features, CINEMA 4D R11.5 provides improved workflow and productivity, enabling professionals to create high-quality stills and animations quicker and easier than ever before. This release is the culmination of MAXON’s leading-edge technology and development. It features a substantially re-tooled and accelerated render engine, an all -new Picture Viewer, enhanced interoperability with leading compositing applications, and a major upgrade to its popular MoGraph module, which features an integrated Dynamics Engine and a host of new additions. CINEMA 4D Release 11.5 also provides full support for the latest operating system offerings from Apple and Microsoft, including Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7, respectively.

Nuke 5.2v1

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:54:50 +0100

Nuke 5.2v1 has been released, adding a number of new features including metadata support down the tree, pre-comp nodes, broadcast monitor output, r3d support and more!

Spherevfx upgrades Mudbox Training Courses for 2010 Release.

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:49:36 +0100

Upgraded Mudbox 2010 Training Courses. spherevfx has upgraded its Mudbox training courses to cover the new features found in the 2010 releases. The courses now covers:
Improved file interoperability with 3D applications using Autodesk FBX
Improved paint layer interoperability with Adobe Photoshop
Wax Brush
Clone Brush
Dry Brush
New Viewport filters
New brush stamps and stencils alongwith sculpt templates
Mirror sculpting and painting for stencils
and more...

PFTrack course at Dinamo.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:10:29 +0100

spherevfx has delighted to have provided both a beginners refresher course along with a more advanced / consultancy based PFTrack course for artist at Dinamo.

Spherevfx upgrades Maya Training Courses for 2010 Release.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:53:10 +0100

spherevfx has upgraded its Maya training courses to cover the new features found in the 2010 releases. The courses now have the addition of the new features covering:
Toxik
Matchmover
Backburner
Constraints to Animation Layers
and more...

Nuke Course for Italian 3D / VFX Company

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:22:10 +0100

spherevfx is deslighted to have trained two artist from the Italian post production company 'Pixel Cartoon' in The Foundry's Nuke. The four day Nuke: Complete course covered all aspects of Nuke including:
Multi-channel high dynamic range workflow
Colour Correction
Point and Normal Pass Relighting
Keying and Matte Creation
3D (Pan & Tile, Cleanup, Projection, Roto)
and much more...

Announcing our next Nuke DVD

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:21:39 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to announce our next Nuke DVD which will be available in the next few months. Currently being developed under the title of 'Nuke: Defined' this new DVD will be a comprehensive guide to the 150 plus tools currently found in Nuke. It will also be covering the UI, Editors and Preferences. The great thing about this training package is that it's built with expansion in mind, so as new versions of Nuke come out existing spherevfx customers can buy or receive free (if they've taken the year subscription option) an update DVD. The training package is going to be available as a single licence or as a site licence (giving companies the flexibility to copy the content onto their internal intranet). Also, as mentioned above, a year subscription can also be taken out giving free upgrades for all versions of Nuke brought out by The Foundry in a 12 month period. More information coming soon...

After Effects Course at The ATRiuM

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:21:22 +0100

Matt Leonard of spherevfx was pleased to have run a two day After Effects CS4 course on behalf of Cryptic Peach. The course given at the ATRiuM for staff members of Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries covered a multitude of disciplines including: The UI, Compositing Window, Layers, Text, Colour Correction, Masks and Mattes, Keying, Tracking / Stabilization, Effects and Filters, Distortion Tools, Animation and Keyframes, Path Animations, The Graph Editor, 3D, Expressions

Fusion Course at Framestore

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:20:30 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have run a Fusion 6 course at Framestore in Soho. Nine people attended the course, which was joint event with Focus FX, including a number of Senior Compositors. The course covered a number of areas including Tracking, Keying, Colour Correction, Macros and the new 3D system heavily updated in Version 6.

Rolling Shutter for After Effects and Nuke

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:19:54 +0100

The Foundry have released a brand new plug-in tool, Rolling Shutter, for After Effects and Nuke which tackles image-distortion problems often experienced by users of CMOS cameras. The plug-in tackles skew and wobble problems from the VFX artist’s perspective. Although the plug-in will often vastly improve the look of distorted footage, by either minimising or eradicating image distortions, its main purpose is to enable software trackers to work effectively on a wide range of affected footage.

The Pixel Farm have released PFPipe

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:19:25 +0100

The Pixel Farm have released PFPipe which is designed to greatly improve workflow efficiency by integrating PFTrack and the data it generates into 3rd party applications, PFPipe follows our philosophy of finding simple solutions to workaday production problems. This workflow enhancement creates a consistency of data throughout the production pipeline saving time, reducing the risk of human error and beefing up workflow efficiency. What Is PFPipe? PFPipe is a C API for reading PFTrack projects and obtaining the data contained therein, currently that's camera data and distortion data. Initially this will allow people to to establish direct integration of PFTrack data into 3rd party applications and in-house pipelines and technologies. The first release of PFPipe will provide access to both PFTracks camera data and renowned distortion models, as well as providing all project links to footage and clips used in the project file itself.

Autodesk Maya 2010

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:18:59 +0100

Autodesk, Inc. announced Autodesk Maya 2010 software, which unifies the Autodesk Maya Complete 2009 and Autodesk Maya Unlimited 2009 feature sets with matchmoving (Matchmover), compositing (Toxik) and rendering (mental ray) capabilities into a single affordable offering. Maya 2010 makes it easier for artists, designers and 3D enthusiasts to create compelling entertainment experiences, stylistic designs and evocative digital imagery from photo-real visual effects to believable characters. Maya 2010 is available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS operating systems. Autodesk Maya 2010 Features Maya 2010 has all the features of Maya Unlimited 2009 and Maya Complete 2009, including the advanced simulation tools: the Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework, Maya nCloth, Maya nParticles, Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Hair, Maya Fur; in addition to its comprehensive modeling, texturing and animation tools, brush-based 3D technology, an integrated stereoscopic workflow, Toon Shading, rendering, an extensive Maya application programming interface/software development kit and Python and MEL scripting capabilities. New features in Maya 2010 are Maya Composite, a powerful high-dynamic compositing system based on Autodesk Toxik software, which is no longer available as a standalone solution; Autodesk MatchMover advanced 3D tracking and matchmoving system; five mental ray Batch render nodes* and the Autodesk Backburner network render queue manager.

Autodesk Mudbox 2010

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:18:33 +0100

Autodesk, Inc. has launched Autodesk Mudbox 2010 software, the latest version of its digital sculpting and painting application. The 2010 release makes it easier for artists to use Mudbox alongside Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Softimage software. Mudbox 2010 now also features a host of new creative tools and workflows, as well as a software development kit (SDK) that enables production teams to customize and integrate Mudbox into pipelines.

3DEqualizer4

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:17:58 +0100

Science.D.Visions today announced 3DEqualizer4, the latest version of its match moving software, winner of an Academy Award® in 2002 for Technical Achievement. With a comprehensive re-write of nearly 90 percent of its core code, 3DEqualizer4 is literally a new product, and will offer visual effects artists and technical directors (TD’s) a substantially faster workflow that generates extremely precise results on multiple operating platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. 3DEqualizer4 is available now in solid Beta, and is expected to ship in autumn 2009. 3DEqualizer has been used on Avator, Angels and Demons, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

RenderMan Pro Server 15.0

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:17:03 +0100

Pixar Animation Studios made three major product announcements to users of the studios’ Academy Award® winning RenderMan® software and to every artist and studio creating cinematic quality imagery. The first announcement is unlimited threading across all RenderMan Products, the second is the upcoming release of RenderMan Pro Server 15.0, and the third is Tractor™ 1.0, Pixar’s new render management solution engineered for computing networks of unprecedented scale. Unlimited threading will enable studios and artists to maximize the power of their render farms, allowing each license of RenderMan to utilize any number of threads on the latest multi-core platforms. RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 will be the first product to introduce unlimited threading when it is released in the fall of 2009. This will be followed with unlimited threading for RenderMan Studio and RenderMan for Maya.

After Effects Masterclass at The ATRiuM

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:16:35 +0100

Matt Leonard of spherevfx was pleased to have given an Adobe After Effects masterclass at The ATRiuM on behalf of Cryptic Peach. The masterclass was attended by over 50 people from industry and various universities and covered a mixer of advanced After Effects techniques including Keying, Lightwrap and Edge Blur tools, 3D Projection, Tracking and Colour Correction.

New 'Fusion 6 Foundations' DVD

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:15:04 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to announce the release of our new 'Fusion 6: Foundations' DVD. This is the must have training resource of anyone updating to the newest release of eyeon's flagship compositing system. Covering all the new features including:
User Interface and Display Views
Understanding the RoI & DoD
New and Improved 2D Tools
Polylines and Paths
Timeline and Spline Editor
3D
Stereoscopic Tools
Fusion and Generation Collaboration

Maya and Fusion at SMU

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:51:05 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to have again work alongside students at Swansea Metropolitan University. The course mainly focused on compositing skills using eyeon's Fusion and Autodesk's Maya 2009.

Fusion 6 Article by Matt Leonard on fxguide.com

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:50:28 +0100

eyeon Software began life in 1987 as New York Production and Design. They were based in Sydney, Australia and primarily produced 3D and Visual Effects for feature films and commercials. As more and more challenging effects were being called for, NYPD began developing its own in-house proprietary toolset. As time went on these separate tools were combined into a single system know today as Fusion. Now based in the Beaches District of Toronto (Canada) and with 21 years of development behind them, eyeon Software has just released the 16th major version of its flagship compositing software Fusion. This year alone, Fusion is being used on the likes of Terminator Salvation, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra and Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian...

Updated Fusion Training Course, Now Version 6

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:50:04 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to announce we have updated our Fusion courses to cover the new features found in the much anticipated release of version 6. These changes include the User Interface and Display Views, the RoI & DoD, changes and new 2D Tools, enhancements to Polylines, Paths, the Timeline and Spline Editor. Also updated to whole 3D section, plus added a section on Stereoscopic compositing.

Luxology Release Modo 401

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:48:52 +0100

The rapid evolution of modo took another leap today as Luxology LLC announced the immediate availability of its latest 3D content creation software, modo 401. With a focus on rendering and animation enhancements, modo 401 delivers a wealth of new features and innovative workflows, which enable users to easily model on top of existing geometry, see changes in their scene immediately from the radically improved Preview renderer and efficiently re-use assets throughout the content creation process. These new features benefit customers in a broad array of disciplines such as architectural visualization, product design, game development and advertising image production.

eyeon Release Fusion 6

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:48:10 +0100

Eyeon Software Inc. announced the availability of its Fusion 6.0 node-based compositing application as an Open Release Candidate. Optimized for the latest processing and graphics card technologies, Fusion 6 offers improved performance, along with new features and capabilities, including full support for stereoscopic content, Region of Interest/Domain of Definition (RoI/DoD), interface refinements, expanded 2D and 3D tool sets, and more. Significant portions of the code for Fusion 6 have been re-written for the new generation of multi-core processors, says a representative. A new GPU core for accelerated performance and GPU-based production-quality, floating-point rendering has been added. The application also features a new color matrix tool, expanded spline-smoothing tools, and enhanced spline controls. Fusion 6 offers support for concatenated 3D LUTs and an all-new material system, which enables users to build their own custom shaders. Fusion 6 delivers stereoscopic imaging tools, including camera controls for eye separation, convergence, and support for stereo display technologies, such as IZ3D and True3Di monitors, shutter glasses, and anaglyph production. Fusion 6 also offers RED file format support, including both 32-bit and 64-bit, and real-time .r3d proxy loading.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:45:06 +0100

This week the guys discuss cost of film vs RED, build 18 alpha, report from Cinegear Expo & chat to DP/Director Philip Bloom

Nuke Course for Lead Soho Artist

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:44:52 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have run a custom In-Depth course for Maryam Sharifi, a lead artist and supervisor. The course focused on the more advanced functionality of Nuke and covered keying, tracking, colour correction and 3D in detail. Particular focus was given to real world compositing task including Pan and Tile, Camera Projections, 3D Roto and Multipass CG compositing.

New 'Fusion 6 Foundations' DVD

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:44:37 +0100

spherevfx is excited to announce the imminent release of our new 'Fusion 6 Foundations' DVD. This is the must have training resource of anyone updating to the newest release of eyeon's flagship compositing system.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 09:43:54 +0100

This week’s podcast the guys talk frame rates, firmware and the front line with the Canon 5DMkII.

GoZbrush

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 14:45:50 +0100

GoZ is a new core feature of ZBrush that will bring you even closer to creating at the speed of your imagination. With GoZ, artists can spend less time on technical aspects, and more time on simply being creative. With a single click of a button, GoZ lets you quickly transfer your geometry back and forth between ZBrush and other 3D application like Maya, Cinema 4D, and Modo, with many other applications soon to come. This means that you can place ZBrush and its GoZ feature at the center of any workflow. Not only can you instantly transfer geometry between ZBrush and other 3D applications, but any texture, normal, and displacement maps created with in ZBrush will automatically be connected to the appropriate shader networks in the program of your choosing. Now you are free to work with out the distraction of timely export and import operations. GoZ breaks down the walls between other applications extending the power and fluid nature of ZBrush even further.

Added new quote to re: Nuke DVD.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:50:22 +0100

We've added a new quote by Sean Devereaux (Digital Domain) to our Nuke In-Depth 3D DVD page.

Update to 'Customer References' Area.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:46:41 +0100

We've updated our customer reference area.

Generation Training, First in the UK

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:41:40 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have become the UK's first eyeon Generation training facility.
Generation is a new class of software, which fills a gap in post and VFX workflows by offering a platform for artist collaboration and a visual canvas for efficient shot management.

Special Edition VFX wallpaper moved.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:40:50 +0100

Special Edition VFX wallpaper has been moved to the 'Resources' section.

New 'VFX Show' Podcast Out.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:45:08 +0100

Mike Seymour, Matt Graham and David Stripinis discuss the visual effects in the feature film Angels & Demons.

New 'fxguide' Podcast Out.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:43:57 +0100

An interview with Rob Cook, co-architect and primary author of Pixar's RenderMan.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:43:24 +0100

This week’s podcast the guys wrap up their workflow roundup, go low tech with digital Super 8 and hit the edit room with a 7 camera RED shoot.

NukeX 6.0 Details Released

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:19:54 +0100

Nuke 6.0 incorporates a completely new shape rotoscope and paint toolset based on a rewritten core curve library and new RotoPaint node. This release introduces a flexible, non-destructive, layer based paint hierarchy integrated with Nuke’s animation and tracking capabilities and supporting per-object attributes such as blending modes and motion blur. In addition, The Foundry’s highly acclaimed Keylight keyer will be a standard feature included with Nuke 6.0. NukeX 6.0 has all of the tools and features of Nuke 6.0, but also aims to bring additional, powerful, technologies within the reach of visual effects artists. Many of these tools and technologies are expensive to purchase and maintain, but would make a considerable difference to the overall speed, efficiency and quality of work produced by artists if they had access to them. This first release includes a fully integrated 3D camera tracker. You can do your own camera solves, create 3D geometry and position objects and cards at the right place in the scene whenever you need to. Lens distortion tools are another example of the advanced technology we are adding to NukeX 6.0 giving you multiple ways to analyse image sequences and lens grids resulting in a lens model and the ability to warp and un-warp in order to compensate for lens distortion. NukeX will also incorporate FurnaceCore - 12 of The Foundry’s best Furnace tools including Kronos, the optical flow re-timer, grain and de-grain tools, rig-removal and more. NukeX will be $6,000/£4,000 and NukeX maintenance will be $1,200/£800 PA. Nuke will remain priced at $3,500/£2,300 with annual maintenance at $1,000/£650. Nuke 6 and NukeX 6 are scheduled for release 3rd Quarter 2009.

Episode 58 of fxguidetv - Watchmen

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:19:25 +0100

It’s a new week and with it comes a new fxguidetv episode. This week, we focus on the movie ‘Watchmen’ via an interview with Intelligent Creatures 2D Supervisor Greg Astles. Recorded at NAB, he breaks down the process of creating Rorschach’s mask from the start of the concept to putting on the the finishing touches using Nuke’s multipass capabilities.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Thu, 14 May 2009 19:51:59 +0100

This week’s podcast includes a look at the Phantom HD high speed camera, an attempt to review the V3 Depth Enhancer, and a conversation with Axel Baumann.

Fusion, Maya and PFTrack Training

Thu, 14 May 2009 19:50:51 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have again work alongside students at Swansea Metropolitan University.

The course many focused on compositing skills using eyeon's Fusion but also covered techniques in tracking (PFTrack 5) and 3D (Maya 2009).

Specifically focused towards professional production techniques the students work primarily on a new project entitled 'The Blitz' which will be show cased later in the year.

Episode 58 of fxguidetv - Star Trek

Sat, 9 May 2009 17:57:02 +0100

Episode 58 of fxguidetv covering this weekend’s release of Star Trek. The show features interviews with director director J.J. Abrams and actor Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), including a discussion about how they created the overabundant anamorphic lens flares.

eyeon SWAT Training Partner

Sat, 9 May 2009 15:38:35 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have become one of eyeon's SWAT training partners. With the 'SoftWare Artist Training' program, eyeon has expanded an international network of trainers to ensure that every eyeon artist is up-to-speed on the latest versions of Fusion, Generation, Vision and Rotation.

Pixar releases RenderMan for Maya 3.0.

Fri, 8 May 2009 17:00:07 +0100

Pixar is pleased to announce the joint release of RenderMan Studio 2.0 and RenderMan for Maya 3.0.

Update to Fusion 5.3 Course Page

Fri, 8 May 2009 16:59:31 +0100

More information now available on the Fusion 5.3 Training Course page.

Special Edition spherevfx Wallpaper

Thu, 7 May 2009 21:44:05 +0100

spherevfx is pleased to make avalible our special edition wallpaper made up of this summer visual effects blockbusters.
Visit the site to download...

Maya at UWIC

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:39:27 +0100

Matt Leonard Head of Training at spherevfx is delighted to have work with UWIC, Cardiff Metropolitan University, teaching Maya 2009. The short introductory course was designed to teach the basic of Maya and covered a mixture of areas including Modeling, Animation, Shading, Lighting and Rendering.

Update to Nuke 5.1 Course Page

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:33:05 +0100

More information now available on the Nuke 5.1 Training Course page.

spherevfx Updates PFTrack Course to 5.0

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:32:28 +0100

spherevfx has updated it PFTrack course to cover the new features found in version 5.0. PFTrack V5 is the ninth major release of the application and contains over 50 new features and enhancements driven by both our research and customer requests. PFTrack now supports stereo cameras, and the tracking engine and camera solver have been optimized and improved. Reference frames can also be loaded to assist with tracking difficult shots. Camera focal length information can be imported via a simple XML data format, and depth and optical flow data can be exported as OpenEXR image sequences. Other GUI improvements include better access to feature tracking buttons, additional feature-track filtering tools and improvements to the F-Curve editing tools.

Planetside releases Terragen 2

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:31:46 +0100

In a much anticipated collaboration, Planetside Software and Xfrog, Inc. today released Terragen 2 with XfrogPlants. This unique software combines photo-realistic landscaping with the most sought after virtual vegetation. A wholly unique collaboration, Terragen 2 with XfrogPlants unites two companies that share a common goal: to create the most highly realistic virtual ecosystem software available for personal or professional use. With the ability to create entire planets, sweeping vistas, tiny rock gardens or anything in between, the user can step into a creator’s shoes and subsequently animate the virtual environment, giving life to an otherwise static scene.

The Foundry have announces Nuke 5.2 and 6/6x

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:31:23 +0100

The Foundry announced new versions of their Nuke compositing software at NAB this week. The first, Nuke 5.2, has workflow improvements with Python scripting, stereo workflow, overhaul of the UI, performance improvements, bug fixes and artist/pipeline efficiency enhancers including disk cache, pre-comp, and 3D LUTs in the GPU. The release is expected to ship in Q2 of this year. They also announced version 6, which is expected to ship in Q3. It comes in two flavors, one of which includes the Furnace plugin suite and 3D camera tracking.

Fusion 5.31 Build 78

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:31:01 +0100

eyeon have release Fusion 5.31 Build 78

Nuke 5.1v5

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:29:49 +0100

The Foundry have released Nuke 5.1v5

Pixologic announces zBrush 4

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:28:24 +0100

ZBrush 4 offers significant enhancements to existing features, and a host of new innovative tools that will allow you to explore and ignite your imagination. More information will be avalible in the coming months.

eyeon Generation 1.1

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:27:20 +0100

eyeon Software Inc. unveiled Generation 1.1. Generation is a new class of software, which fills a gap in post and VFX workflows by offering a platform for artist collaboration and a visual canvas for efficient shot management. The new version of Generation adds new playback and image adjustment features, and extends the collaborative capabilities of the application.

Autodesk Flare.

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:26:44 +0100

Autodesk Inc. has launched the new Flame and Inferno creative companion, Autodesk Flare software. Autodesk Flare 2010 is an integral part of the Autodesk solution to bridge the gap between 2D and 3D. Featuring the core creative tool set of Flame and Inferno, Flare is designed to help boost creativity, expand capacity, and develop talent for Flame and Inferno customers. Flare is intended for advanced creative tasks, such as compositing, sophisticated graphics, and interactive design, as well as support tasks, such as rotoscoping, retouching, and dust removal, project setup, and keying.

In-Depth course covers Maya, PFTrack and Nuke

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:00:50 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have run a custom In-Depth course for Jim Solan, a Director/Editor/Compositor working in London and Manchester. The course utilized a mix of Maya 2009, PFTrack 5.0 and Nuke 5.1v4 and covered a multitude of disciplines including tracking and data export. Maya multipass rendering and working with imported tracked data, and a detailed look at Nuke's 3D system, it's powerful IBK Keyer, Layers/Channels and more.

Side Effects Software announces the immediate release of Houdini 10.

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:58:29 +0100

TORONTO: June 16, 2009 Side Effects Software, an industry leader in 3D animation and visual effects software, is pleased to announce the immediate release of Houdini 10. Designed to make artists more productive while equipping studios with the most powerful tools in the industry, Houdini 10 is destined to become a must-have release for 3D artists everywhere.

eyeon Software announced its new SWAT certification program.

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:57:00 +0100

With the new SoftWare Artist Training (SWAT) umbrella program, the company has expanded its international network of trainers, colleges, online resources, and in-house product support personnel to ensure that every eyeon artist is up-to-speed on the latest versions of Fusion, Generation, Rotation, and Vision.

Custom Nuke course for MPC artist.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:09:03 +0100

spherevfx is delighted to have trained a visual effect artist from MPC (Moving Picture Company) in The Foundry's Nuke. The four day Nuke: Complete course covered all aspects of this award winning compositing and effects application including 3D compositing, multi-channel high dynamic range workflow, keying, colour correction, image control, camera effects, paint, roto, time manipulation and much more.

eyeon have released images rendered from their much anticipated Fusion 6 update.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:08:21 +0100

Eric Westphal from eyeon comments "The render utilizing F6's new shader and material system. Apart from the model itself and some photographed textures these are all shaded and rendered in Fusion6."

CG Channel interview with VFX Supervisor Eric Durst, by Carole Bouchard

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:07:47 +0100

A graduate from Cal Arts in Animation, Eric Durst started his journey 30 years ago to make groundbreaking imagery. Beginning as a director with his own personal projects, he came to LA to work on Tron. This led him to direct some of the most inventive "combo" commercials during this period, integrating live action performances with visual effects. His venture into motion picture visual effects began with a dozen movies like the Batman sequels and Spider-Man 2, and most recently, The Last Mimsy and City of Ember...

Red Dwarf Course at fxphd.com

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 07:46:47 +0100

Matt Leonard, (Head of Training) dives into production with his new fxphd course covering the work he did for 'Red Dwarf: Back to Earth'. For this course, he'll be walking through the entire production process of his work on the show, from pre-production, to on-set, to the final composite. He'll cover all the angles of delivering great animation and a realistic composite in this hard core hands-on course.

Article on John Berton Jr., CGSociety

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 07:45:42 +0100

John Andrew Berton Jr. is one of those visionaries who realized that potential when digital visual effects were still just the pencil sketches of madmen. His path from film experimentation to his current title of VFX Supervisor on the upcoming Disney film, 'The King of the Elves' and all the achievements in between is full of ‘right place, right time’ scenarios...

Nuke 5.1v4

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 07:45:18 +0100

The Foundry have released Nuke 5.1v4, a bug fix release.

fxphd April 09 announced.

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 09:08:24 +0100

fxphd have released the list of new courses coming up in the April 09 term. New courses include: AFX205 - After Effects Motion Graphics II AFX206 - After Effects Studio Techniques CS4 BKD212 - Background Fundamentals April 09 CMP201 - Special Ops - The Visual Effects of Red Dwarf FLM205 - Flame Production on Red Dwarf IND201 - Indy Film: The Post Production Workflow MYA206 - Maya Animation & Compositing: Red Dwarf PYT101 - Python Scripting for Compositors RED102 - Comprehensive Guide to RED Post Workflow RED206 - RED Tales from Production SMK202 - Intermediate Smoke XSI202 - Production with XSI On top of these 12 new courses, fxphd are repeating another 25 courses covering a host of software application and techniques.

Maya 2009 Service Pack 1 released

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 09:07:37 +0100

Autodesk has released Maya 2009 Service Pack 1 includes over 100 fixes for Autodesk Maya 2009 across several functional areas, including: Rendering, Assets, Animation and Rigging, Dynamics and Effects, Modeling, Python scripting and API.

e-on software release Ozone 4.0

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 09:07:03 +0100

e-on software, makers of Vue, the leading solutions for natural 3D environments, and creators of breakthrough spectral atmospheric rendering technologies today announced the immediate availability of a free Open Beta of it’s upcoming Ozone 4.0 Atmospheric Plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema4D, LightWave, Maya and Softimage|XSI. Ozone 4.0 implements the Spectral 2 cutting-edge technologies developed by e-on software for the simulation and rendering of atmospheric effects. Ozone 4.0 atmospheres provide an accurately simulated environment that affects all elements of the scenes, and behaves according to nature’s rules.

Cinefex issue 117 is released.

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 12:37:35 +0000

Watchman, Coraline, The Spirit, Changeling, Inkheart. The next issue covers: Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Angels and Demons.

Nuke Master-Class Video's On-Line

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 23:18:56 +0000

The videos, filmed by fxguide / fxphd, of the Nuke Master-Class held back in January are now available online from The Foundry's website. Matt Leonard (head of training at spherevfx) was among the six speakers who contributed to the event at The Curzon cinema in Soho which was attended by over 200 artist from across Europe.

New film added to 'Future VFX Movies'

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 12:24:50 +0000

State of Play - Rhythm and Hues (April), Drag Me to Hell- Tippett Studios (May) , Public Ememies - Cafe FX (July), They Came from Upstairs - Rhythm and Hues (August), Game - Furious FX / Look! Effects (September), Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - Tippett Studios (September), Shuffer Island - Cafe FX (October), Cirque de Freak - Rhythm and Hues (October), New Moon - Tippett Studios (November), plus more in the 2010+ section...

New American Cinematographer Podcast - Valkyrie

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 12:23:40 +0000

Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC, cinematographer of Valkyrie, speaks with American Cinematographer’s Jon Silberg about shooting in Germany and the US.They discuss the film stocks, lens and digital intermediate processes that created the look of the film as well as the impact of Tom Cruise signing on to what had originally been a small and low-budget project.

Matt Leonard talks Nuke 3D

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:11:31 +0000

In the second of two evening at 01zero-one, Matt Leonard, head of training was please to have taught once again on The Foundry's Nuke. The evening covered UV Projections, Camera Projections, Background Plate Cleanup, working with zDepth and Motion Vectors, and techniques for Rotoscoping in 3D. The course was attended by artist working at such companies as Double Negative and Framestore.

Ed Ulbrich talks The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Ed Ulbrich, the digital-effects guru from Digital Domain, explains the Oscar-winning technology that allowed his team to digitally create younger and older versions of Brad Pitt's face for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Available on TED and running for 18 mins.

Autodesk announces Softimage 7.5.

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:10:14 +0000

New features include UV unfolding technology, a multithreaded Syflex cloth simulator and an integrated mental ray 3.7+ renderer.

The Oscar for best achievement in Visual Effects goes to:

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:49:43 +0000

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

New fxguidetv podcasts available.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:57:39 +0000

Double Negative vfx supervisor Paul Franklin, one of the Academy Award nominees for visual effects on "The Dark Knight".

New VFX Show - The Fifth Element

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:57:03 +0000

Mike Seymour, Mark Christiansen and Kristin Martin discuss the visual effects in the 1997 classic feature film The Fifth Element.

7th Annual VES Awards

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:54:48 +0000

VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY (VES) ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 7th ANNUAL VES AWARDS The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Takes Home Four Awards Including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture The Dark Knight,Wall-E Take Home Three Awards Each

Matt Leonard talks Nuke 3D at 01zero-one

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:24:19 +0000

Matt Leonard, head of training at spherevfx is delighted to have been asked to teach on behalf of 01zero-one, located at Westminster Kingsway College, London. The course entitled 'The Nuke 3D Artist', is designed to help existing Shake and After Effects compositors get to grips with Nuke's unique channel system and 3D environment. The students come from diverse but professional compositing backgrounds and hold positions at companies across Soho. The first of two evenings being taken by Matt Leonard looked at introducing the students to Nuke's 3D system. During the evening he covered Pan and Tile setups and the use of Camera Projection for object removal purposes and Set Extentions.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:23:54 +0000

This week Mike and Jason revisit downconverters, discuss the perils of DIY Red, and speak to photographer turned filmmaker Vincent Laforet.

New VFX Show - The Oscars

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:23:12 +0000

Mike Seymour, John Flowers and Mark Christiansen discuss the nominees for the Academy Award in Visual Effects, along with some of the films that didn’t make it to the final round.

Autodesk has announces 3ds Max Design 2010.

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:11:39 +0000

New Feature Highlights:

Graphite Modeling Tools
Material Explorer
xView Mesh Analyzer
Viewport Canvas
ProBooleans Enhancements
UVW Unwrap Enhancements
ProOptimizer
mental mill/MetaSL Support
Review Enhancements
PFlowAdvanced
Cloth
Hair
ProSound
Support for Locked Tracks
Link Constraint
User Interface Refresh
Flight Studio Support
Exposure Lighting Analysis Improvements
Interactive Lighting Analysis
Global Quality Knobs
Support for High Resolution Render Output
Multi-Map Shader
Animation Flicker Reduction
Final Gather Progressive Rendering
Render Surface Map
Linear Color Space Workflow
Containers
Enhanced Scene Explorer
OBJ Import Improvements
Real-Time Photometric Lighting and Viewport Exposure Control
Adobe Photoshop Interoperability

BAFTA winner for Special Visual Effects

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 08:55:00 +0000

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) winner for Special Visual Effects: 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button' Eric Barba, Craig Barron, Nathan McGuinness, Edson Williams

New VFX Show - Valkyrie

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 19:56:57 +0000

Mike Seymour, John Flowers and Mark Christiansen discuss the visual effects in the feature Valkyrie.

Maya nDynamics course at Dinamo.

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 19:56:22 +0000

spherevfx is delighted to have run a Maya nParticles and nCloth course for artists at Dinamo Productions. During the course we also looked at various other areas of Maya including expressions, working with set driven keys, multi-layer shader setups and mental ray's Final Gathering.

Benjamin Button VFX Journal.

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 08:41:01 +0000

Digital Domain have release a breakdown of their work for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the form of an animated on-line journal.

The Orphanage closes.

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 10:30:13 +0000

Stu Maschwitz, Scott Stewart and Jonathan Rothbart today announced that The Orphanage will be suspending operations indefinitely.

NewTek announces Lightwave CORE.

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 10:29:05 +0000

LightWave CORE is a completely new architecture for LightWave. Over two years in design, LightWave CORE is the next generation, leading edge multi-processing, unified application engine created by NewTek. It is slated to ship in Q4 of 2009 and will retail for US$1495.

VFX Oscar Nominees 2009: Conversations with Barba, Franklin and Snow.

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 10:28:13 +0000

VFXWorld offers its sixth-annual Oscar chat with the supervisors nominated for Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and Iron Man.

Release of Mudbox 2009 Service Pack 1

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 19:07:40 +0000

Autodesk Mudbox 2009 Service Pack 1 has been released and includes updates across several functional areas of the software including expanded graphics cards support, new memory management for multiple textures, merge and reorder 3D paint layers, non-filtered texture display, and full ambient occlusion texture baking.

Nuke case study from Digital Domain

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 19:06:49 +0000

People work with UVs, and project on to 3D geometry all the time, but this may be the first time these techniques have been combined on a human form. Read the case study to find out how Digital Domain's Justin Van der Lek used Nuke's UV space in a unique way to complete shots on 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'.

Nuke Master Class Scripts On-Line

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 19:05:54 +0000

All scripts are now available via The Foundry's website

New film added to 'Future VFX Movies'

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:17:48 +0000

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, release date 2010.

New fxguidetv podcasts available.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:25:09 +0000

A new episode of fxguidetv is available for your viewing pleasure. It features an interview with vfx supervisor Eric Durst, who chats with Mike Seymour about the craft of turning elements of a script into visual effects which help tell the story. Also, we have a look at a fun Levi’s 501 spec spot helmed by director Paul Schneider.

spherevfx talks Nuke at The Foundry's Master Class.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:24:41 +0000

January 29th saw the first Nuke Master Class run by The Foundry and Matt Leonard (head of training at spherevfx) was among the six speakers who contributed to the event at The Curzon cinema in Soho. The whole event was attended by over 200 artist from across Europe.

New VFX Show: Pushing Daisies

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:15:31 +0000

Mike Seymour, John Flowers and Lori Apthorp discuss the visual effects in the TV series “Pushing Daisies” Season 2, Episode 1: “Bzzzzzzzzz!”.

Nuke's Image Based Keyer tutorial.

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:15:16 +0000

Steve Wright, senior visual effects artist, trainer and author, has put together a keying tutorial for Nuke's Image Based Keyer (IBK).

Nuke 5.1v3 has been released.

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:01:26 +0000

This is a maintenance release to increase rendering performance. Existing customers on support and maintenance contracts will not need a license key to run this update.

Final three films announced for the Visual Effects category for the 2008 Academy Awards

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:01:01 +0000

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron The Dark Knight Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin Iron Man John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

3ds Max to Maya course at Dinamo.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:20:29 +0000

spherevfx is delighted to have trained five artists at Dinamo Productions in a custom '3ds Max to Maya' course. Covered in the course where general UI differences, modelling, animation, shaders, lighting, cameras, and rendering. We also touched on Fusion, PFTrack and Mudbox.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:19:50 +0000

Canon 5D MkII vs RED (if you speak Norwegian). We discuss large format photography with the Epic 617 and speak to panoramic photographer Ken Duncan who can't wait for his.

NewTek Releases LightWave 3D® v9.6

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:43:34 +0000

NewTek Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the release of LightWave® v9.6, a major update to its award-winning 3D application, LightWave 3D®. LightWave v9.6’s new capabilities include improvements to animation, rendering and workflow, with FiberFX cloning, Layout snapping and automatic drag-and-drop file loading. More than 625 feature requests and reported issues have been implemented and resolved between 9.5 and 9.6. LightWave v9.6 is the fifth free update in the LightWave v9 series.

fxguide covers Valkyrie, new article and podcast online...

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:12:16 +0000

Rich Hoover, visual effects supervisor on Valkyrie about the complexity of doing such a powerful historical film.

More updates on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button articles.

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:05:54 +0000

WATCH : The Amazing Effects Of Benjamin Button - The Huffington News

New VFX Show - The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:35:18 +0000

Mike Seymour, David Stripinis and John Flowers discuss the visual effects in "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

New fxguidetv podcasts available.

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:53:25 +0000

The new year brings a new episode of fxguidetv and it’s a milestone for them: their 50th episode. They decided to have some fun at take a look back at some of our favorite moments from the past year and a half. What an 18 months it was! They also take a look ahead at the new term featuring over 15 new courses over at their sister site fxphd.com.

Nominations for the 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Special Visual Effects

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:52:05 +0000

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Iron Man Quantum of Solace

New VFX Show podcast out..

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:19:57 +0000

In their first episode of 2009, Mike Seymour, David Stripinis and Mark Christiansen discuss the visual effects in the feature film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Update on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button articles.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:20:01 +0000

New article on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button can be found at CBS News and The VFX Show.

Nuke hotkey chart updated.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:44:18 +0000

Correction made to the Nuke Hotkey Card found in the 'Resources' section.

New 'red centre' Podcast Out.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:47:18 +0000

The Red Centre team kick off 2009 with shutters and keeping that film look, talk native RED grading, and new gear. Their RedRoom victim David Geddes shoots the first RED TV Series.

New fxguide podcast covering 'Australia'.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:38:06 +0000

With the Bake off for the Oscar Nominations this Thursday in LA, we speak to Iloura's Peter Webb about the film Australia. One of seven films in the running for the Oscar's three nominations for best visual effects. Peter was part of the team at iloura that handled much of the end of the film, including much of the bombing of Darwin.

Winter update now available.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:51:00 +0000

spherevfx's Winter 2009 Update/News Letter is now available. This issue covers new and updated courses, our new Nuke DVD, spotlight on PFTrack and mental ray courses, plus Houdini and Generation courses coming soon.

News: 64-bit OS X version of SynthEyes.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:19:15 +0000

Andersson Technologies LLC has introduced a 64-bit OS X version of SynthEyes, its match-moving application. SynthEyes introduced support for 64-bit Windows in 2005 and now leads the market to 64-bit OS X, all with extensive multi-core optimization for the latest eight-core machines.

New film added to 'Future VFX Movies'

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:18:14 +0000

'Thundercats' release date 2010 added to 'Future VFX Movies' section

Update on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button articles.

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:21:42 +0000

New article on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button can be found at VFX World.